Synopsis by Unifrance: "Daniel Lefebvre heads a kindergarten in Hernaing, northern France. The son of a miner, he works in a once-affluent area that is now plagued by unemployment. Backed by a competent and devoted team of teachers, he encourages verbal and intellectual creativity among the children. One afternoon, a woman named Mme Henry arrives late to pick up her daughter. When bending over to kiss the child, she crumples in the school yard, dead drunk; overcome with embarrassment, she flees, leaving her little girl and her infant there. Daniel suddenly finds himself lumbered with the two kids." " En essayant coûte que coûte d'inventer une solidarité, de travailler en
équipe avec les assistantes sociales, les parents d'élèves, la mairie,
la PMI, il va se heurter au morcellement du système : chacun travaille
dans son coin. La guerre est déclarée et c'est toute sa vie d'homme et
d'enseignant qui est remise en question."

A magnificent and engrossing drama of social consciousness set in an école maternelle, a French kindergarten featuring a passionate and committed director fighting unfathomable deprivation. There is a great tradition of such drama in the French cinema, also including La Maternelle (1933), a masterpiece directed by Jean Benoît-Levy and Marie Epstein.

The circumstances are desperate because of daunting unemployment in a town which has lost its principal industry, the mining industry. But this film is about an unbroken spirit and a will to fight to the end. Clearly this is a labour of love for its makers, including Bertrand Tavernier and the leading actor, Philippe Torreton.

Conventional gender roles are reversed. Daniel (Torreton) works at the kindergarten in a "feminine" occupation. His partner Valéria (Maria Pitarresi) is a sculptor who welds and uses heavy tools in "masculine" fashion.

The premises are depressing, but the film is life-affirming in many ways. The spirit of the teachers is indomitable. The cinematography is ebullient with a particularly fresh and delightful colour palette. The children themselves are in the center, full of a joy of life. The children are the future, and the teachers are fighting for them. Towards the finale there is a fantastic party on the school yard, with a real orchestra, a huge installation with coloured bottles, Arab delicacies, and a dance. Even the film's title is a defiant motto of affirmation.

Which does not make us forget hunger, poverty, deprivation, alcoholism, domestic violence, suicides, collective suicides of families, disconnected landlines, and electricity shutdowns in winter of families with little children.

The bureaucracy at any level of the government is not helpful. There is an abyss of ignorance and negligence. The inspectors who pay fleeting visits are out of their depth. Budgets are woefully insufficient.

The issues are topical in Finland, too. We had a political strike of the early childhood educators of the province of Uusimaa on 25 April. They are underpaid and understaffed.

We learn that Daniel himself has been a victim of domestic violence in childhood. He has outgrown the revenge principle and turned into a man who fights abuse and deprivation of any kind. He still works at a reconciliation with his embittered father, and a beautiful text written by him moves his parents in the finale.

Also Valéria's son carries a grudge and finds it hard to understand that his father had dumped Valéria when she became a teenage mother. It is tough for him to realize that his father left Valéria because of him. Only when he understands Daniel's tragedy with his own father he starts to accept Daniel.

The film is rich and dense, based on short scenes and rapid cutting. It will benefit from multiple viewings.

Ça commence aujourd’hui can be seen as a coda to Émile Zola's Germinal (1885) which has been memorably filmed several times (by Ferdinand Zecca, 1903, Albert Capellani, 1913, Yves Allégret, 1963, and Claude Berri, 1993, among others).

A particularly brilliant print with a fresh colour scale. I wondered if it might be possible that it has been struck from the original negative. Anyway it looks wonderful. This print runs 119 min.

OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON TUUVE ARO:OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON TUUVE ARO:

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